Pretty soon we’ll all be monitoring our homes from smart devices that enable us to turn lights on and off, adjust the heat, and start the washing machine or dryer. And then we can put up our feet and watch robots vacuum the floor and clean the windows. Robots and Wi-Fi enabled thermostats, lights, and light switches are just some of the smart appliances that Consumer Reports tested this year. And we have to admit, most of them were pretty cool. Perhaps just the … (read more)

LEDs and CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, but that won’t matter much if the lightbulbs are dim or give off a weird color. To find CFLs and LEDs that outshine the rest, our experts head straight to the integrating sphere in our lightbulb lab. That’s how we know that an EcoSmart LED from Home Depot is the best replacement for a 60-watt incandescent that we’ve tested.